Diversity and Inclusion Chair Handbook
Current Chairs:
| Name | Affiliation | Contact |
|---|---|---|
| Senja Pollak | Jožef Stefan Institute | senja.pollak@ijs.si |
| Maria Ryskina | MIT | ryskina@mit.edu |
| Shane Storks | University of Michigan | sstorks@umich.edu |
| Hwaran lee | NAVER | hwaran.lee@gmail.com |
Overview of Responsibilities
The D&I Chairs at *CL conferences are responsible for promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion by ensuring accessibility, fostering a welcoming environment, and addressing the needs of underrepresented groups within the conference community. Additionally, they must address special requests, such as wheelchair rentals and sign language interpretation, and collaborate with the local chairs to ensure these needs are met.
The following are the main responsibilities of the D&I Chairs:
1. D&I Sponsorship and Cross-Committee Coordination\ 2. D&I Registration Subsidy Allocation\ 3. Activity Management (Birds of a Feather and Affinity Groups)\ 4. Help with Accessibility and Special Accommodations\ 5. (Optional) Organize Lunch with ACL Fellows
An excellent additional resource for D&I chairs is this guide compiled by Sabine Weber.
Breakdown of Responsibilities
1. D&I Sponsorship and Cross-Committee Coordination
This responsibility focuses on acquiring necessary funding for D&I related activities, in addition to receiving clarifications and advice from previous D&I chairs.
| Task | Start | Deadline | Dependency | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contact previous *CL D&I Chairs | ASAP | July 2025 | - | - |
| Advertise Funding for D&I in Sponsorship Booklet | Nov 2024 | Nov 2024 | - | Collaborate with NAACL D&I and sponsorship chairs. D&I requires funding to fund its subsidies and other activities. This is to attract funding from companies who apply for this specific type of sponsorship. |
| Network with Potential D&I Sponsors | Dec 2024 | June 2025 | - | - |
2. D&I Registration Subsidy Allocation
D&I subsidies consist of registration, caregiving, bandwidth, travel, and VPN subsidies. ACL strongly encourages researchers from developing countries and marginalized communities, students, and researchers with financial hurdles to apply for both D&I subsidies and volunteering opportunities to maximize their chances of waiving their registration fees.
Virtual Registration Subsidy Note: Discounted virtual registration may be offered to low-income virtual attendees, and this is funded by ACL rather than the D&I budget. There are the following exceptions: (1) Authors with accepted papers, (2) Employed/funded individuals/students from: the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and higher-income countries in Asia and the Middle East. The timeline approximately follows that shown below. However, there is no funding cap (pending approval from the ACL Executive Committee) - chairs should determine the level of subsidy for Virtual registration on a per-applicant basis (inc. whether or not to waive the ACL membership fee). Further, these subsidies may be offered in some cases to presenting authors who did not receive a standard D&I subsidy or have other extenuating circumstances. We recommend connecting with the ACL Equity Director before releasing the Call for Virtual Registration Subsidies to ensure alignment on application questions and selection criteria.
| Task | Start | Deadline | Dependency | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Create Calls for D&I Subsidies | Jan 2025 | Apr 2025 | - | (1) Contact the ACL Business Team and/or past D&I Committees for an application form template. Avoid using Google Forms to ensure accessibility to participants in China. (2) Forms must make clear what is to be covered by the D&I subsidies. (3) Example Calls: Virtual, In-Person. |
| Publicize Calls for D&I Subsides | - | May 2025 | - | Coordinate with Publicity and Website Chairs to post and share Call. Include application deadline and notification timeline. Example D&I Social Media Blurbs. |
| Collect Applications for D&I Subsidies | May 2025 | June 2025 | Call must be public | (1) Collect the following from applicants: Personal details, paper information, first-time attendance status, student status, financial situation and visa requirements. (2) Forms must make clear what is to be covered by the D&I subsidies. |
| Establish D&I Subsidy Policy | Mat 2025 | June 2025 | - | (1) Coordinate with ACL Business Team to identify available subsidies (ACL/Sponsors), set up a budget tracker spreadsheet, and set up registration discount codes. (2) Determine allocation basis (partial support to many applicants vs. full support to fewer, or somewhere in between). |
| Draft List of Awardees | June 2025 | June 2025 | - | (1) Tackle virtual attendees first (these require approval from ACL Execs, which may take several days). (2) Prioritize first-time attendees, underrepresented groups, non-high-income regions and those that have not received this funding before/recently. (3) Estimate subsidy costs based on the geographical location and status of the proposed awardees. (4) Contact the Student Volunteer Chairs to identify whether potential awardees have also been granted a student volunteer position. (5) Before notification, the recommended standard D&I subsidy awardee list must be shared with the ACL Business Team for approval, while the virtual registration awardee list must be shared with the ACL Equity Director for approval by the Executive Committee. |
| Send Notifications to Awardees | -- | June 2025 | Finalized award list | (1) Notifications must be sent before Early Bird registration deadline, as all registration waivers expire after it. (2) Notifications must clearly state the award details and reimbursement cap. (3) Three types of notifications should be sent: A rejection letter for applicants who were not awarded subsidies, an acceptance letter for those who do not require pre-paid accommodation, and an acceptance letter for those who do require pre-paid accommodation (which should request scanned Passport photos to allow hotel bookings; note that this is difficult to coordinate, and most recent conferences instead reimbursed accommodation costs). (4) Deadlines should be presented to awardees to accept subsidies in order for rejected subsidies to be reallocated. You may consider putting some applicants on a waitlist instead of rejecting them to account for this possibility. (5) Notification Templates. |
3. Activity Management (Birds of a Feather and Affinity Groups)
This responsibility focuses on the creation of activities with shared research and non-research interests, allowing attendees to discuss ideas and network with likeminded individuals. This helps create a more welcoming environment at the conference, especially for student and first-time attendees.
| Task | Start | Deadline | Dependency | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Create Call for Birds of a Feather and Affinity Group Events | Feb 2025 | Mar 2025 | - | Example Birds of a Feather/Affinity Call. |
| Publicize Call for Birds of a Feather and Affinity Group Events | Apr 2025 | Apr 2025 | Room availability confirmed | Application deadline: Late May 2025. Coordinate with Publicity and Website Chairs to post and share Call. We recommend publicizing through ACL and Corpora mailing lists, ACL social media, and direct contact with affinity groups and the ACL Mentorship Team. |
| Review Applications for Birds of a Feather and Affinity Groups | May 2025 | June 2025 | Closed applications | Coordinate with Organizers and Business team to confirm the amount of available time slots for these sessions, and ensure that an appropriate number of sessions are accepted. You can consider merging sessions that are highly related to each other. Some session organizers may prefer to hold their event over a lunch break; be sure to confirm expectations about scheduling and catering ahead of time. |
| Send Notifications to Accepted Birds of a Feather and Affinity Groups | June 2025 | June 2025 | - | Inform the Organizers and Business team to ensure inclusion in the conference program. Coordinate with them and session organizers to find an appropriate time for their event on the schedule (i.e., which doesn't conflict with related poster, oral, or panel sessions). |
4. Help with Accessibility and Special Accommodations
This responsibility focuses on ensuring that the conference meets the accessibility requirements of its attendees, including the elicitation of attendee needs and the allocation of rooms.
| Task | Start | Deadline | Dependency | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Confirm Venue Accommodations | Jan 2025 | July 2025 | - | Wheelchair accessibility, gender-neutral bathrooms, prayer rooms, etc. |
| Plan D&I Room Allocation | April 2025 | May 2025 | Main conference room allocation details from Business Team & finalized list of D&I events | Children's room, quiet room, prayer rooms, Affinity event rooms, etc. |
| Finalize D&I Registration Form Questions | Apr 2025 | Before registration opens | - | Collaborate with Megs Haddad & Jenn Rachford to ensure alignment on questions in the registration form. Be careful with word choices to avoid unintended promises (e.g., the word "accommodation" can be interpreted as related to hotels). |
| Collect Accommodation & Mentoring Requests in Registration Forms | After registration opens | July 2025 | Registration open | (1) Collaborate with Megs Haddad & Jenn Rachford. (2) Send mentoring requests to ACL Mentorship team. (3) Connect with those who request accommodations to introduce yourself and confirm their specific needs. |
| Organize Closed Captioning | After registration opens | Before conference begins | The registration form will ask attendees whether they require closed captioning. | If closed captioning is requested by attendees, we have a legal obligation to provide it for their sessions of choice (usually the plenary sessions are sufficient, but we recommend reaching out to these attendees for more information about their needs). This cost is typically covered by the D&I Budget, so be sure to account for this in awarding D&I Subsidies. |
Additional notes/lessons learned:
- Bringing Children to the Conference:
- At some past conferences, children were not allowed at the venue without a registration badge, which is disappointing and unexpected for many attendees. Raise the question of children’s access to the venue and receptions with the ACL team (Jenn Rachford), the PC chairs, and the venue well in advance.
- Children’s access policies need to be clearly stated in the registration form and on the website: what rooms will children be allowed in? What kind of registration will they need (if any), and what kind of registration is needed for a family member/partner who is caring for a small child?
- If a registration fee is needed to give children and accompanying family members access to the venue, the D&I team can consider offering childcare subsidies for this.
- Closed Captioning:
- If closed captioning is provided, make sure attendees will know how to access captions (if they can’t be shown live onscreen).
- Underline should be able to share QR codes before plenary sessions for this, but be sure to ask ahead of time.
- D&I Room Allocation:
- Make sure the D&I-related rooms are clearly and visibly promoted at the venue.
- The venue will likely have various screens to direct people, and the information for these may be sent weeks in advance (contact ACL Business Team to ask them to include D&I rooms in this).
- Room locations can also be announced on Whova for more visibility.
- Check that the physical signage and the online announcements explain each room’s purpose clearly (e.g., that the quiet room serves as a break space for attendees with sensory issues and is not for working).
- Dietary restrictions:
- Work with the venue to ensure food for attendees with dietary restrictions (e.g., Halal) is clearly labeled. Find out which food labels suit each dietary requirement (e.g., vegetarian dishes were also Halal at Austria Center Vienna).
- Don’t print dietary restrictions on name badges: some labels (e.g., Halal) may indicate the participant’s religion, which they may not want to publicly disclose.
- Registration Form Questions:
- The “mentoring” questions on the registration form (“Do you have any interest in being a mentor/being mentored?”) are typically not followed up on.
- At ACL 2025, we forwarded the responses to the ACL year-round mentoring team (who used them to promote a mentoring event at ACL 2025).
- Still, nothing is being done to match mentors and mentees. We recommend either:
- Changing the question to a more generic one, like “are you interested in mentoring events at the conference?”, or
- Starting a matching process for mentors and mentees. It might help to make the questions a bit clearer; this isn’t a long-term, formal mentoring relationship, but simply a “buddy system” that pairs new conference attendees with experienced conference attendees.
5. (Optional) Organize Lunch with ACL Fellows
Introduced at EMNLP 2024, this optional activity allows D&I awardees to meet with ACL Fellows for networking that they may otherwise not be able to access. This should be funded by the D&I budget, and can be a great way to spend unused budget (e.g., if any D&I Subsidy awardees failed to secure a visa or dropped out at the last minute).
| Task | Start | Deadline | Dependency | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ascertain Interest | TBD | July 2025 | - | Send out a form asking D&I subsidy awardees and ACL Fellows if they are interested in attending such an activity and identify topic interests. |
| Group Awardees & Fellows | July 2025 | July 2025 | Identify interested individuals. | Group D&I subsidy awardees and ACL Fellows based on shared interests. |
| Lunch | July 2025 | July 2025 | - | (1) Book a restaurant (near the venue) and send instructions on when/where to meet. (2) At least one D&I Committee member should attend the lunch.* |
Additionally, all D&I chairs should feel free to propose and trial new D&I initiatives, pending approval.